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Does aggressiveness of individuals affect the feeding behaviour of group-housed growing pigs?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

H.L.I. Bornett
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecology and Resource Management, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK
C.A. Morgan
Affiliation:
Scottish Agricultural College, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK
A.B. Lawrence
Affiliation:
Scottish Agricultural College, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK
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Extract

The feeding behaviour of group-housed pigs differs from that of pigs housed individually in that they make fewer visits to the feeder of a longer duration (Bornett et al., 2000). Possible reasons for this difference in feeding behaviour include competition and group cohesion and these may be influenced by group composition in terms of aggressiveness. Indeed, Erhard et al. (1997) found that groups comprising all low aggressive pigs integrated into a group quicker than groups of all high aggressive pigs. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of aggressiveness of individuals on the feeding behaviour of group-housed growing pigs.

Type
Poster Session I
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 2001

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References

Bornett, H.L.I., Morgan, C.A., Lawrence, A.B. and Mann, J. (2000). The effect of group housing on feeding patterns and social behaviour of previously individually housed growing pigs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 70: 127141.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erhard, H.W., Mendl, M. and Ashley, D.D. (1997). Individual aggressiveness of pigs can be measured and used to reduce aggression after mixing. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 54: 137151.Google Scholar
Tolkamp, B.J., Allcroft, D.J., Austin, E.J., Nielsen, B.L. and Kyriazakis, I. (1998). Satiety splits feeding behaviour into bouts. Journal of Theoretical Biology 194: 235250.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed